For the past decade, Louisiana has staked itself to a big lead in the corruption faceoff. “According to statistics compiled by the Corporate Crime Reporter, it was No. 1 for the period between 1997 and 2006, with 326 federal corruption convictions. That’s a rate of 7.67 per 100,000 residents,” Weisberg writes. “Illinois had 524 convictions in the same period, but with a larger population, its rate was only 4.68, which puts it an embarrassing sixth.”

Louisiana also has long had a more colorful history of corruption than Illinois, whose scandals have a “ward-boss flavor,” Wesiberg writes. “They still tend to revolve around petty, methodical rake-offs from the quotidian operations of government—liquor licenses, elevator inspections, speeding tickets, and, above all, hiring.” Louisiana is “flamboyant and shameless” while Illinois “tends to be mingy, pedestrian, and shameful.”

Blagojevich, however, gives the Land a Lincoln a chance to win the game at the buzzer. Weisberg writes, “With Rod Blagojevich and his wife, Patricia — Lady Macbeth of Milwaukee Avenue — Illinois’ corruption has gone carnival.”

Is it too early to remind everyone that noone has been tried or convicted yet.. Of course the right wingers such of Hannity, Rush and O’Reilley and others of that ilk are tryibng their damnest to tie President-Elect Obama with Bogeyojich (sic). But there is nothing there. I’m sure they won’t let themselves be distracted by the facts.